Neither of us had said the words yet, but I had a hunch his heart was right in line with mine. Or at least I hoped it was. Not a day had gone by without Nate sporting the scruff I told him I liked so much, so that had to mean something, right?
And everything else was going well too. Rocco liked his new daycare a lot better, and he was even starting to engage with some of the other kids. The nose twitching was still around sometimes but was not nearly as prevalent as it had been. And he and Nate were getting along phenomenally. Now I just had to tackle asking Rocco how he’d feel about Nate having “sleepovers” at our house. Part of me felt like it was too soon, but my gut was telling me this was it. Nate was the one.
I’d finally introduced my parents to Nate over Skype last week. Yeah, that wasn’t awkward at all. But since we’d spent a few evenings with his parents already, he said it was time to meet mine. Luckily Rocco dominated the online conversation as he usually did, so it all turned out okay in the end.
Fiona was still in a Terrence-free zone but hadn’t had a date with anyone else as far as I knew. She and Nate got along well too, which was a big bonus since she and I were a package deal. And Nate being Gavin’s boss hadn’t turned out to be as troublesome as I’d feared. They hung out like friends when Nate was at our house, and Gavin still appeared to like his job, so all was good.
Until it wasn’t.
It was Thursday after work and Nate let himself in the front door as usual. Rocco and I had been home for a little while and I was chopping vegetables, pretending to know what to do with them, while Rocco watched cartoons in the living room. As soon as Nate entered the kitchen I could feel a weird vibe. He didn’t come over and kiss me right away like he usually did so that was my confirmation that something was wrong. He dragged his fingers through his sweaty, matted hair and set down his hoodie.
“Hey, mind if I jump in the shower? I’m a mess.”
“Sure. You okay?”
“I don’t know …” he hedged. “We’ll talk later.”
That did not sound good. Not at all. My first instinct was to follow him into the bedroom and make him talk. But I forced myself to think like a guy and I left him alone for the time being, as he’d asked.
Dinner was very quiet. Gavin hadn’t come home to eat, which wasn’t unusual, but it would have been nice to have someone else to relieve the tension at the table. Nate was stewing, and even Rocco’s chatter wasn’t enough to rouse him. I just spent the time responding to Rocco and asking him about his day.
When dinner was over, Nate grabbed his hoodie and started to open his mouth to speak. I cut him off before he could get one word out. “You don’t need to tell me everything if you don’t want to, but you don’t get to leave here without saying at least something.” I leaned against the stove and waited.
He set his sweatshirt back down and then his hand went back to his dark hair. “It’s nothing, it’s just … well, have you seen Gavin today?”
I looked at him warily. “No. I usually leave before he gets up. Did something happen to him?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
I pushed off from the stove. “Stop worrying me, Nate. Wasn’t Gavin at work today?”
“No. He never showed.”
“Are you sure? Maybe he was at a different site today or something.”
“Laney, I’m his foreman.”
“Well there has to be a good reason, right?” But I was feeling uneasy all the same.
“I’m pretty sure there’s a reason all right.” He sighed and then threw his hand out to the side. “This sucks.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” My hand was predictably glued to my cheek by this point.
“Gavin asked me earlier this week if he could take today off. I told him he hadn’t earned vacation yet so the answer was no.”
“Okay, that makes sense. Why did he need the day off?”
Nate’s hand was back in his hair. “He didn’t say. He just said he had something he needed to do and it could only be done today. But he seemed okay when I turned him down.”
I approached him and laid my hands on his chest. “Nate, I’m sorry he put you in this situation. I hope there’s a good explanation and this can all be worked out, but it sucks that you were put in the middle like this.”
“No, it goes with the job, regardless of who my girlfriend is.” His hands ran up and down my arms. “The problem is now I’ll have to dock his pay and put him on probation. I’m worried he’s not going to take it well and I don’t want him taking it out on you. He can be pissed at me, but he knew the consequences, and I know things can sometimes be tense between you two.”
He wasn’t wrong. And I was pissed and disappointed that Gavin had put Nate in this position. Things had been going so well, and I thought the big dope had finally grown up a bit. Where in the world could he be and how could it be important enough to risk his job? Not to mention disrespecting Nate like that.
“Listen, I’m sorry I’m being so moody. If it’s okay with you I’m just going to go home. I don’t really want to run into Gavin tonight and I’ll have a more level head in the morning if and when he shows up to work.”
I told him I understood and gave him the biggest hug I could muster.
Damn you, Gavin!
It was eleven o’clock when I heard the front door shut—smoothly, thanks to Nate’s handy-work. Gavin’s footsteps were hardly audible and I’m sure he assumed I was asleep, not waiting on the couch to strike like a freaking rattlesnake—which was exactly how I felt.
“Where in the hell have you been?”
He jumped, his palm hitting his chest. Good, I scared the shit out of him. He quickly regained his composure. “None of your business, Mom. Go to bed.”
“It is my business when, (a) you have me worried you’re dead in a ditch somewhere, and (b) my boyfriend is your boss and you decided to play hooky like you’re sixteen again and put him in a really difficult spot.” I didn’t even try to hide my annoyance.
He stalked into the living room and dropped his bag on the floor. “See, I knew it was a bad idea for you guys to date. I totally saw this coming!”
“You saw yourself acting like an irresponsible dipshit again?”
His mouth went tight. “I wasn’t being irresponsible. I weighed my options and decided the consequences of skipping work were worth it.”
“Oh, this should be good. What exactly could have been more important? Were you donating a kidney?” My brows shot up and I leaned back into the cushions.
“Don’t be such a bitch. I went to see Coach Willis.” He inched closer to the couch.
“Why?” I was utterly confused.
“He called me up this weekend and told me he’d be in Charlotte and wanted to see me. But he was only going to be there today. I thought … I thought. Goddammit! I thought he was calling because he wanted me back on a team. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking, I just got the call and I couldn’t not go.” He slumped onto the couch next to me, his head dropping back.
Well, shit. The guy looked like a kicked puppy, so I calmed myself down a bit. “What did he really want?”
Gavin choked out a humorless laugh. “He’s got some camps he’s working with and asked if I wanted a temp job coaching some kids. And he said he missed seeing my ugly mug, so he wanted me to come in person.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“I don’t want to coach some snot-nosed kids. I want to play. I was supposed to play.”
I remained silent and rubbed his arm. My heart broke for him.
But only for a second because then he went and pissed me right the hell off.
“I’m quitting the construction job and going to Virginia.”
At his words, my back went so straight I could have taught an etiquette class. “You what?! Are you joking?”
“No. I’m just not cut out for this.”
I could almost hear the countdown to my brain’s imminent explosion. “Not cut out for what? Being an adult?” The calm I’d regained was a thing of history. I leapt off the couch and pointed right in his face. I couldn’t have stopped myself if I’d tried—the urge to rant at him had been bottled up for so long.
“You lived in Mom and Dad’s house for two years and never got a job—never paid a dime. You let them buy you a Jeep, for Christ’s sake—it may be a shitty one but you still let them pay for it. They were so afraid you were going to fall apart and so disappointed for you that they would have done anything—and you let them!
“You acted like a spoiled child whose favorite toy had been taken away and you let them wait on you hand and foot. It only took eight weeks to recover from your injury—an injury that was a direct result of your own goddamned carelessness, by the way—but you milked the hell out of it and acted like a whiny baby. You took advantage of them and refused to grow the fuck up and take responsibility.”
My blood was on fire and I couldn’t seem to stop. “So life didn’t turn out how you wanted it to—join the fucking club. Do you think I lay in my bed as a child dreaming of my future life as a single mom pinching pennies and working a boring-ass job to make ends meet?” I swiped my hair out of my face and kept going. “And don’t you even think about throwing the help I got from Mom and Dad in my face. I know I was damn lucky to have them and I appreciated the hell out of it. Never did I take it for granted, and I pulled my weight as best I could. I got dealt a bad hand and took it on the chin, unlike you. I picked myself up and moved on because that’s what it is to be an adult.”
I was so worked up by this point I felt like I needed a corner man to wipe my face down.
But Gavin, who had been swiping my finger aside repeatedly, was up and facing off with me. He had come to fight too. “You got dealt a bad hand?! Ha! You decided to spread your legs for some douchebag with a guitar and suffered the consequences. I chose to get on that motorcycle and you chose to be a slut, so don’t paint me with a different brush, Laney. We both fucked up. The only difference is that my fuck-up killed the only dream I’ve ever had in my entire life! Yours just changed the timing of what your life had in store for you anyway.”